Tools. Every One of Us
January 2, 2009
There is a correlation between a utensil and what it demands to be cooked. I have discovered this about myself. That I love cooking tools. A tool demands to be used, just like your mom….haha. Anyways, I’ve discovered that I have a passion to be demanded upon by tools (just like your mom. Okay, okay, I can’t help myself!). So I bought a LeCreuset Five Quart French Oven. It demands a stew. I have never made a stew because I grew up thinking it was a waste of time. My mom (God love her) made horrible stew. She was not blessed with the stew gene as she was blessed with the pie and cake and whatever-else-she-decided-to-cook-besides-gravy-gene. In short, my mom could cook anything besides soup and gravy. But I was graced with the stew and soup gene, because every soup I’ve ever come up with has come up freakin’ awesome. I actually don’t attribute that to genes, but to tools. I bought a LeCruset soup pot and it demanded that I make a Southwest style quick black bean soup in it. My partner (Jesse) and his Mexican friend, Luis, almost lit a candle in memory of the occasion. I had the opportunity to upgrade to a five-quart French oven over Christmas, it called to me in the grocery store to make a stew using a quality meat. I find quality meat is something of a novelty these days with American corn and hormone fed everything—even our dogs—I don’t recommend the “Halal Market on San Pab.” So I choose a deli sausage in a casing and proceed to make a stew out of it with some barley, alphabet pasta, and some lentils. It is amazing. I got a Kitchen-Aid 450 watt five-quart professional mixer and I hate to take it out of the box in fear of being demanded to bake at the exclusion of everything else. So my point to all of this is, whether it be a homely wooden spoon with a “France” stamp on the handle or a $500 piece of baking equipment, be careful—they will dictate your kitchen, not you.
In my case, the gene for gravy had a latent expression. Years of lousy gravy, attempting to make it the same way my mother, THE GRAVY GODDESS did and failing miserably. Then, in recent years, I have had increasing success with this evasive art form. One advantage my mother had was that she roasted lots of meats that made great gravy drippings. I, on the other hand, almost never roast anything — ergo the lack of gravy skills.
Stew, however, is a totally different gig. I adore stew. I could eat it every week and never get sick of it and I do have to say that I make a damn good stew — thanks again Mom!
I don’t have a problem with my kitchen goodies calling to be used (or maybe I just ignore them better than you
My month-old Cuisinart Food Processer has yet to be used.
The quality of the meat does not matter as much if it’s going to stew for a while. Stew on that.
I actually understand that the quality of the meat doesn’t matter so much for stew. That’s what stew was invented for–all of the cuts of meat and bones that weren’t used as a showcase item for a previous meal–a way to stretch the dollar from the good meal the night before, if you will. However, I like to use a quality meat in a ‘quick stew’ because half the time I don’t have time to sit around and make a crazy stock of onions and pig knuckles. So I either use a nice piece of meat that is tasty from the go or something really flavorful to quickly get a good flavor into the soup in no time. I’m a lazy cook. I like to wow without a lot of work. Thanks for your comment.